Examining Older Adults’ Filial Expectation and Evaluation of Adult Children

This study explored the relationship between filial discrepancy and older adults’ overall filial piety rating of their adult children. Along with the prevailing context of individualism, more discrepancies have emerged between what older adults expect and what they actually receive, and this may have a complex influence on intergenerational harmony. In total, 245 older adults (average age 64.6 years, range 55 to 93) provided 422 questionnaires (177 provided two sets of data, one each for their son and daughter). The results showed that, in general, Chinese older adults expected more from and evaluated their sons and daughters-in-law higher in filial piety than their daughters and sons-in-law. On the specific filial piety factor, sons and daughters-in-law were evaluated as less filial, and daughters and sons-in-law as more filial if they had more sons. The more filial behavior received, the higher the older adults rated their children, especially in terms of attitudinal and mannerly filial behaviors, which supported the discrepancy evaluations hypothesis. The gender of adult children and grandchildren is crucial to older adults’ filial evaluation, and this study reemphasized the importance of filial piety discrepancies rather than filial receipt.